The Rebel: Grima's Child
by Pikes Pendragon
Summary: This is Awakening's story told in a new perspective: still in the eyes of MU, but instead, has no amnesia and runs away from Plegia so that destiny doesn't have to meet its exact course.
1. Premonition

_Beginning Commentary: _So, I've been playing Fire Emblem: Awakening recently (and really got pissed off because Lucina inherited Lethality when I wanted her to inherit Galeforce… I'd try to fix it, but I already saved after recruiting her) and I've noticed that the storyline is rather…meh. There are some genuine moments, true, but I'm not really one for amnesiac-driven main characters unless their proper background is given. One wasn't given for the MU, which sucks. (I mean, no flashbacks AND Morgan was forced to go through the same cliché, too!?) SO, I've decided to give my shot at a story where there's no amnesia and none of the whole "liar revealed" bull crap you see in so many flicks. LET US HOPE THAT THIS DOESN'T SUCK HORRIBLY!

Ahh yes, before we truly begin:

The MU in this story is a female named Anne (original, I know). She's got the medium-esque body (Gods, that sounded wrong!) with short, brown hair. And since I consider the MUs to be the Alices of this story, I'll try my hardest to give Anne more personality than your typical hero who's all "OMG, LOOK AT ALL THE WHACKY THINGS THAT ARE HAPPENING AROUND ME!"

I can't play the Xenologues because I don't want to bother my parents just for money, (I mean, YEESH, I already had to get my dad to change our Internet password so I could get the bonus characters) so don't expect those to show up. (I mean, I _might_ reference The Future Past ones and the one with all the Annas, but that's probably as far as I can go).

And on our last note, I feel like some of the character interactions aren't quite…legitimate, in a sense. (Not just talking about how you can ship Owain x Lucina…) For example, how funny would it be if most of the guys that had an ego challenged Walhart or Priam to a duel, just to have them get their asses brutally handed over to them? I think that'd be amazing!

WITH THAT ALL OUT OF THE WAY, LET US BEGIN!

* * *

**Premonition: Invisible Ties**

_Just remember to stay calm_, I told myself. It was then that I looked at my right hand and saw a small glow coming out from my glove. _This'll all be over soon…_

"Anne, are you ready?" I heard Chrom speak to me. As always, he was right behind me; making sure that I didn't go off the deep end into madness.

"You bet I am," I remarked snarkily, pulling my hood over my head. "I've been waiting for the longest time to finally get rid of that dastard."

"Good," Chrom chuckled. He had a nice, warm smile on his face, but then turned into a serious scowl. "This is it. Our final battle!"

We both turned and faced the sinister man in front of us. He was only footsteps away, but I could already sense his foul aura. What's worse was that his looks matched his aura to the spot. The goatee was enough already, but he had the royal headdress, Plegian robe, dreadfully pale skin, red eyes, and even sharp claws to match. Even though he was my father, I saw no resemblance between the two of us; not even the robes that we wore.

"Why do you continue to resist?" He implied. "Grima's hours are nigh, but you still think you are in control!"

I fell silent.

"You are and will always be a slave to both me and Grima! Never forget that!"

"You're wrong, Validar!" Chrom shouted. "Every spirit is born free!" He then unsheathed Falchion. "As Ylisse's ruler and a child of Naga, it is my promise to make sure each spirit stays free!"

"Pheh! Naga's hypocrisy begs to differ! Your so-called 'goddess' has caused the Plegians nothing but suffering!"

"Maybe that's because your kind of Plegians have rejected her kindness!" I exclaimed.

"What did you say?!"

"You heard me; the past Plegians have been nothing but pathetic, greedy fools!"

"YOU HOLD YOUR TONGUE!" With that, Validar whipped out his purple spell book and aimed his dark magic at me. I was just about ready to dodge when Chrom got out the Fire Emblem and blocked it.

"Chrom, you might damage it!" I gasped.

"Doesn't matter; too much blood has been shed over this. If it disappears, then we can enter an age where religion doesn't come between nations. Besides, we still need Ylisse's master tactician."

I felt as if I was blushing and crying, but realized that there was no time for such cheesy nonsense. So, I walked away from Chrom and pulled out my Thoron spell book.

"Try to make a sneak attack; I'll distract him," I said as lightning began to pulse from my left hand. Chrom hesitated, and then handed the Fire Emblem over to me. "Are you sure? Grima's still a part of me…"

"I'll be fine. Now let's go!"

"Right!"

Chrom snuck into one of the many pillars surrounding us as I began casting Thoron at Validar. I felt like I had become one with the lightning element and instead of throwing it like a crazed moron, made sure to strike where neither Chrom could get hit nor Validar could easily escape from the bolts. However, because he was a Sorcerer, Validar was also good at controlling magic; his dark element, to be more specific. He dodged nearly as much as I did (though at a much slower pace because of his age). I was surprised I could dodge away from his strikes as fast as I could, but their effects were still startling. We were soon at blade-wielding distance, but I then remembered I had left my blade behind.

_Damn!_ I thought.

"Heh, can't even pull off a proper assassination, now can you?" He sneered. "If you never ran away, you would've had the experience and more."

"Like the deaths of the innocent? Yeah, I think I'll pass on that," I replied.

"You ignorant, ungrateful bastard!" Validar was just about to cast his spell again when a gleam of light blinded him. That was Chrom's signal! I grabbed Validar by the wrists and twisted his arms behind him.

"NOW!" I shouted.

Soon, Chrom jumped out from one of the pillars and charged at Validar. He struggled his way out of my grip, but I dodged in the nick of time before Falchion pierced his chest. He gasped, and the blood started to appear both from his wound and his mouth. Soon, he fell backwards, and Chrom removed Falchion from his corpse.

"We did it, Anne!" Chrom cheered as he was about to embrace me. I was about to return the embrace, but then I saw Validar rise up.

"You won't get away _that_ easily!" He coughed as he cast his final spell.

"CHROM, LOOK OUT!" I shouted. I pushed him out of the way, but got struck by the magic myself. It was a powerful magic, for sure, as I collapsed to my knees before I even knew it. I could feel the inside of my body burning up and light was starting to fade…

"ANNE!" Chrom then picked me up and flipped me to where I could somewhat see his face. "Are you all right?!"

"I think…" I ghastly spoke. I then coughed into my right hand and not only realized the glowing was getting stronger, but blood could be seen on my glove. "Dammit, he's more powerful than I thought."

"Don't worry, we'll get you healed soon. But look." Chrom then made me look at my deceased father. "It's all over. We did it."

I slowly smiled. But then, my head began to throb and I heard a dragon shriek. Soon, I started seeing red. Oh Gods, not this again…

"Anne, what's wrong?" Chrom asked.

It was then that I lost control, and my right hand caused Thoron to strike Chrom right in the middle of his chest. His eyes widened, and he tried holding the lightning as if it were a blade.

"This…is not…your fault," he gasped. He then collapsed and before I faded out completely, I heard Validar's evil laughter surround the palace…


	2. Prologue

**Prologue: The Verge of History**

"CHROM!" I shouted as I sprang up.

I took deep, heavy breaths and clutched my hand over my beating heart as I realized my surroundings were not the same as before. For one thing, I was nearly covered in hay and found myself sitting on a rather hard, wooden surface. I also felt movement, so that must mean I was still in the wagon.

"Are you all right, dear child?" An old voice said to me. I looked towards my right and saw the rather plump woman with a worried look on her face.

It was here that I remembered that my childhood friends, Tharja and Henry, had decided to join me in my quest to find a much more peaceful life in Valm and that we had to hitchhike in the cold night so that we wouldn't freeze to death.

"Y-yeah," I said. "Just a bad dream."

"Talk about a monster of a nightmare, then! I mean, y'all were screamin' and shoutin' and-" the young man with the pot over his head began. He seemed to have rather nice, curly gray hair underneath and had an X scar on his left cheek. He also had his Bronze Lance sit across his lap.

"Donnel! Hush now!"

"Ah, sorry Ma."

I laughed a bit. True, nightmares aren't essentially funny to talk about, but it seemed like Donnel's heart was in the right place.

"Ugh, are we there yet?" I heard Tharja groan. I turned around and saw her hair was a complete mess; hay was sticking out from nearly everywhere!

"Oh, don't worry, dear. We're not that far away."

"So we won't be there for another hour or so…" Tharja sighed as she pulled the hay resting on her onto another big stack; assuming that was where Henry was. She then showed her body covered in what I call the "smallcloth dress" because of how revealing it was. It was black, like her long hair, but her smallclothes could still be seen. (I would say that was intentional for sexual purposes, but Tharja isn't really one for male interactions. Plus, Plegia _was_ a desolated desert, so it made sense one would want to stay somewhat cool but still be safe from sandstorms).

"Goodness!" Donnel gasped as he put the pot over his eyes.

"Now young lady, I don't appreciate you wearing that kind of attire!" Donnel's mother exclaimed. "Hang on; let me find you something more appropriate to wear." She began rummaging through the wagon as Tharja slowly crawled to my left.

"Remind me again why we couldn't just use our magic to teleport…" She asked me.

"Because I didn't want our escape to be obvious," I replied coldly. I remembered we had company, so I started to whisper. "You know my father can track down teleportation."

"I could've hexed him, you know." She then got a greedy smirk on her face.

"And while that would be appreciated, I think he'd find a way to reverse it."

"Hmph."

It was then that we heard a long yawn coming from behind us. We turned around and saw Henry rise up from his haystack like one of the corpses he had tried to raise back when we were young. His white hair wasn't as messed up as Tharja's (probably the benefit of having short hair) and the purple collar of his robe stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Hey, what'd I miss?" Henry said groggily.

"Ah, here we go!" Donnel's mother exclaimed. She then made Tharja stand up and put on a rather plain peasant dress; similar to the one she was wearing. "There, now you won't give my son or any other boys nasty thoughts." She turned over to Donnel. "Donnel, you can look now."

Donnel took the pot off his head and revealed that he was harshly blushing.

"Wow, y'all look rather nice, Miss Tharja!"

She muttered something in response, but I covered her mouth to make sure it wasn't a hex.

"Now now, Tharja; we don't want to make these nice people upset, now do we?" I said to cover up our story.

She looked at me, and then removed my hand from her mouth.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," she said sarcastically.

"Wow, you actually got Tharja to apologize! That's new!" Henry exclaimed. Tharja glared at him, but all he did was chuckle. Henry was like that, but underneath his "harmless" surface were things that the normal human might not take as easily as I could.

"Pardon me, but what's wrong with the fella's eyes? Can they not open properly?" Donnel asked Henry.

"DONNEL!" His mother shouted. "You don't ask those kinds of questions!"

"No, it's fine," Henry said rather cheerfully. "I just find myself laughing at nearly everything that my eyes are used to being shut."

"Well, it's good you have that kind of attitude, then."

* * *

With that, we felt a sudden rumble from underneath our feet. Because we were not used to riding in wagons, Henry, Tharja, and I fell down onto our bottoms while Donnel and his mother just slid a little bit to the side as the wagon came to a stop.

"We're here!" Our driver announced.

We jumped out of the wagon and saw something might never be seen in Plegia: a nice, humble town with big buildings, markets and a stream as far as the eye could see, and all sorts of people looking around for the best deals.

"Wow, what's this place called again?" Henry asked.

"Why, this is none other than Southtown!" Donnel exclaimed. "We always sell our goods once the harvest's over. Then, we march on back home to the Farfort. It's the simple life, but a rather nice one, if I do say so myself."

Wait, Southtown? I remember reading about that place some time ago. It said it was near Ylisstol, Ylisse's capital. That means we would be in…

"Oh no…" I said aloud.

"What?" Tharja asked.

"We're not in Valm! We're in Ylisse!"

"ARE YOU KIDDING?!" Both Henry and Tharja shouted.

"What, did you wanna go to Valm? Sorry, but we don't make trips there…" Donnel said with a bit of embarrassment.

"Great, now everyone's going to accuse us being thieving rapists…" I muttered to Tharja.

"Hexing…" She taunted. I gave her a look that basically said, "_You literally are going to suggest that NOW?"_, and she immediately silenced herself.

"Well, there might be some Valmese salespeople who can give you a ride there," Donnel's mother said.

I paused for a moment to think of what we could do next, but couldn't really think of anything.

"We'll just see how things plan out, then," I sighed. I then got out my money bag and dug in to find some gold. I held my hand out to Donnel's mother. "Take this as our appreciation for your kindness."

"Oh no, I possibly couldn't," she responded. She then closed my hand up. "Overseas trips are much more expensive than you think. Besides, Donnel and I have lived well under our small wealth."

I could almost hear Tharja fake gagging behind me, so I looked over to Henry to make sure she didn't screw anything else up for us.

"Well, if you ever need anything, let us know," I told her.

With that, the wagon driver finished unloading the supplies and began to drive away.

"Take care now!" Donnel's mother exclaimed.

"Y'all should visit Farfort sometime!" Donnel shouted.

"We'll try!" I yelled back at them.

Soon, my fellow mage friends and I began to look around for any signs of Valmese people that might help us during this time.

"Ugh, when can I take this ugly dress off?" Tharja groaned. "It's hot and makes me feel like I have a rash everywhere."

"Let's find transportation first," I replied.

"How about lunch?" Henry said as his stomach gruesomely roared.

I sighed.

"Tell you what, we'll look on this street and then take a break where we can eat and Tharja can get changed. That sound good?"

"Whatever," Tharja said.

"All right!" Henry exclaimed.

With that, we went into different directions to find someone who'd be willing to help us out. I talked to some merchants, but their responses were pretty much the same:

"Valm? And get involved with those Plegians and/or Feroxi? PASS!"

When I got to a certain stand, though, I realized that the merchant was a fellow Plegian. I was a bit nervous to ask him, as he looked rather shady, but I did and he said:

"Well, one _could_ be arranged if you can pay for it."

"Oh, how much gold?" I asked as I began digging in my money bag.

"No no, not gold," he responded. "One of your most valuable belongings." He then looked down to my left hip. "Like that sword you have there."

"N-no, I can't sell this; this is a family heirloom."

"Ahh, but what tragedy…"

I was worried that he'd try to steal Balmung from me, so I walked away and decided to find some food for Henry.

_Yikes, if I don't learn how to use the Balmung soon, I'm doomed! _I thought.

* * *

However, I was soon interrupted from my commentary when I heard screaming from the distance.

"Oh Gods, please tell me that's neither Henry nor Tharja…" I said to myself. I began running and soon saw smoke coming out from the other side of the river.

Eventually, I crossed the bridge and turned some corners to find out that it wasn't what I was expecting. Plegians were still plundering Southtown, but I was just glad it wasn't Henry or Tharja. No, these were barbarians. And I guess it's common for barbarians to do rather barbarous things, but I wanted to make sure nobody got hurt.

_Wait, if I fight, then I might be framed for starting this, _I thought to myself. _But if I don't fight, I might be seen as their strategist and ultimately suffer!_ I pondered, and then let out a small breath.

"Forget it, I'll attack anyways!" I shouted. With that, I pulled out my Thunder spell book and began zapping Plegians.

Eventually, Tharja and Henry found me and ran to my side. Tharja was back in her smallcloth dress.

"How come you're attacking our own kind?" Tharja asked me.

"Because they'd be seen as criminals even in Plegia," I implied. "Now are you going to help me or do I have to do this by myself?"

"Fine," Tharja sighed. She got her Nosferatu, a weak dark magic that helped regain health, spell book.

"Count me in!" Henry cheered as he got out his Elfire spell book. It was stronger than a standard Fire book, but not as strong as Arcfire or Bolganone.

We were in our famous "back-to-back" pose, in which we all made sure everyone's back was covered as we shot magic left and right. This was a bit of a dumb idea, though, as there were some heathens who managed to dodge and got too close for comfort.

Henry and Tharja didn't wield blades and although I had Balmung at my side, I couldn't get it to work. I didn't know why, but I knew that we were in trouble if we didn't find a way to defend ourselves.

Soon, I saw a barbarian corner a helpless woman into a corner nearby the burning building with pretty stained glass.

"We've gotta help her!" I exclaimed.

"What, and get ourselves maimed in the process?" Tharja replied.

"Sounds fun!" Henry shouted. "I'll help you out there."

"Great. Tharja, you try to find a place where they won't strike you easily. Henry and I will try to save her!"

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

Before we could respond, I felt hooves stomping on the ground and felt a bit of wind pick up as something blurred past us. I turned and saw it was a blue-armored person on a blue-armored horse carrying a shiny lance. I assume it was silver, but the fires blinded me a bit. The person managed to kill the barbarian, and then pointed their lance to a direction where the lady could run off to.

"Nice work, Frederick!" A familiar voice shouted.

I heard slashing behind me, and looked behind me to see a blue-haired fellow getting his blade out of a corpse. He had the same shoulder pad, same black torso piece, and even the same sword that had a teardrop-shaped hole near its hilt that the man named Chrom had in my dream.

"Anne, what's up?" Henry asked me.

"That's the guy I saw in my dream," I responded with a glazed tone.

"Ooh, you mean you found your future husband?"

"No, that's the guy who's gonna help me beat Validar!"

I ran towards Chrom, but soon saw a shiny lance appear near my neck. Turns out it was silver, but I didn't want to find out like this.

"State your business," the brown-haired armored man spoke coldly. I felt that if I lied, that would lead into trouble. However, if I flat out told him I was Plegian, I could probably see myself running without a head.

"I'm here to help fight against them," I gulped as I pointed to the corpse of the barbarian the man struck. "I'm good at using magic and so are my other friends."

"How many 'friends' do you have, then?"

"Just two, but we're all powerful mages."

He stared at me with eyes that made me feel chills down my spine from the intimidation.

"Very well," he said as he raised his lance away from my neck. "But make a move on Lord Chrom or Lady Lissa and all of you will have to deal with the exalt herself."

He then ran off to find more barbarians to slaughter as I let out a deep sigh of relief.

"No time for sighing now!" I heard Henry exclaim as he burned a barbarian that was right behind me. "Let's kill them all!"

"Right!" I responded.

* * *

"Wait!" I heard a feminine voice shout. Henry and I paused as we saw a young lady in a yellow dress and blonde pigtails running towards us. She took a moment to catch her breath for a bit. "Allow me to heal your wounds!" Henry and I looked at each other awkwardly.

"O…kay then," I said. The girl smiled, and then used a staff to heal any wounds we might've gotten. I somehow got one on my right hand, but I didn't want to reveal it.

"C'mon, lemme see," the girl implied.

"No no, I'll be fine," I insisted. She touched my hand, and I cringed.

Through some pestering, though, she managed to get my glove off and the symbol of the Plegians could be shown. She looked a bit worried.

"How come you're attacking your own kind?" She asked.

"Because…" I began. _Damn, what do I say?_ "Because I'll tell you later." With that, Henry and I ran away from the girl so that we could continue our pursuit.

"HEY, WAIT FOR ME!" She shouted. She then began running after us.

"Should we dispose of her?" Henry snickered.

"No, Plegians only," I scolded.

"Aww, you're no fun."

Henry and I soon reunited with Tharja and continued attacking the bastards. Strangely, though, we felt completely free of Plegians.

"Well, that was fun," the girl from before sighed. "Kinda ridiculous for _that_ many Plegians to strike the markets, really." She then turned to us. "So, were you sent here, too? If not, why did you attack your own-"

"Head's up!" Henry shouted.

Soon, I pushed Lissa out of the way and got struck by a Fire attack. It only hit my right shoulder, but the burns were still effective.

Tharja struck the mage that caused that, and then helped pick me up.

"You think you can still fight?" She asked me.

"Yeah, I should be fine for now," I responded. The girl pointed her staff at me and forced me to sit down. I told Henry to take Tharja back where they could fight, and they ran off. With that, the girl started waving her staff around my burns.

"So, my name's Lissa," she told me. "And you are?"

"Anne."

"Huh, doesn't sound Plegian to me." I rolled my eyes. "So, _now_ can you tell me what's going on?" I took in a deep breath.

"If I tell the truth, do you promise not to have me killed?"

"As long as you didn't murder the innocent, I should be good."

I told her about how much of an asshole my father was and that I intended to run away so that I wouldn't be able to be his puppet anymore. I wanted to tell her about my…alter ego, as one may call it, but I didn't want to overwhelm her.

"Well, that's horrible!" She exclaimed. "I mean, I've heard stories about my father, but I feel horrible that you had to experience that for yourself!"

"Yeah, that's why I want to get to Valm."

"Well, once this is all over, I'll introduce you to my sister and then we'll have you out of here in no time!"

"Your sister?" I then remembered what the armored knight said to me about the exalt herself. "You mean the exalt?"

"Yep!"

"You know that's not really necessary, right?"

"No, it is! Typically, Plegians wouldn't fight for our cause and that needs to be recognized!" As soon as Lissa said that, my wound had become healed. So, I bolted into battle once more. Lissa began to run after me again.

"Shouldn't you hide somewhere where you can't get hurt?"

"Oh, good idea!"

* * *

Lissa then ran to a safe location as I began to track down more of the enemies. I couldn't find any stragglers as I searched, but instead found Chrom standing on the bridge I crossed before. As I walked over to him, I soon got a glance of something shining on my face. I looked up and saw that one barbarian was standing on the stained glass building's rooftop whilst wielding a Hand Axe, a small axe that could be used as a projectile. My eyes widened as I moved from the glare.

"CHROM, THEY'RE ABOVE YOU!" I shouted.

He looked up and used his sword to deflect it. It was here that the barbarian then jumped from the roof onto the ground and made the ground crack as he landed. As many Plegians did, he wore the skull of a dead animal atop his head and its fur as a cape. However, he decided to keep his chest bare for some reason.

"All right, were you the two responsible for foiling my raid?" The barbarian said in a deep, scratchy voice.

"You bet," Chrom began. "Once the innocent are harmed, then the Shepherds have but no choice than get involved!"

"Ha, don't make me barf, pretty boy." He then looked towards me and got a puzzled look on his face. "Hey, you're a Plegian, too, ain't ya?"

"What?" Chrom asked.

"Look at the robe, boy! That's one of Plegia's finest features!"

Chrom did as such and gave me a bit of a doubtful look.

I laughed nervously and gulped, "I can explain. You see-" But before I could even begin to explain, the barbarian cut me off by throwing his Hand Axe at my feet.

"Go ahead and slaughter the boy," he sneered.

"Are you crazy? I'm not doing that!"

"Ah, come on. You've probably killed others before. Don't be shy, go on."

I slowly picked up the Hand Axe as Chrom slowly backed away from me. I held it in my hands, thinking about what should happen next.

"No," I said.

"Why not?" The barbarian asked.

I snarled and then threw the Hand Axe in the air and shot at it with my Thunder spell.

"Because he's my ally!" I shouted. I then unsheathed Balmung in hopes that I could use it at that exact moment. It was a rather long blade, so I had to make sure that I didn't get carried away by its swift gestures.

"Wait!" Chrom yelled to me. I wanted to stop, but the blade wouldn't let me; I was too caught up in the moment to even think about stopping then and there. When I did strike the barbarian, though, Balmung barely pierced his shoulder.

"What?!" I said aloud. The barbarian looked down on me with a sinister glare. I laughed awkwardly with a dumb look on my face, but the barbarian then grabbed the blade.

"Did you really think you could pierce _me_, Garrick?!" He first said that softly, but then as he said his name, he then threw both Balmung and me sideways and upwards to where I could nearly be flung into the rooftops of smaller-sized buildings. Balmung skidded on the ground into the stain-glassed building as I began to almost "fly".

Why almost? Well, just as I was about to go skyward, I saw Chrom place Falchion on the ground, run to where I was, jumped up, and then managed to catch me like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. We still plummeted, but instead landed in the stream. What I didn't expect, though, was that the water would actually be deep, so I panicked a bit once we splashed. Plegia didn't have that much water in it aside from the ocean that separated it from Valm, so we weren't really used to swimming. Chrom somehow managed to kick his way through the water and got us back to the surface.

"You all right?" he asked as he took in some deep breaths for air.

"NO, GET ME OUT! GET ME OUT!" I screamed. Chrom flustered as I squirmed and soon got me to regular ground where I immediately jumped out and squabbled on land.

"HA, how pathetic," Garrick laughed. I snarled, but then thought of a strategy.

"Chrom, get out of the water. I have an idea," I said silently.

"All right, but how do you know my name? Is it because I'm Ylissean royalty?"

"I'll explain later, just try to get Garrick in the water instead."

Chrom nodded, grabbed Falchion from where he let it lay, and then charged at Garrick. Unfortunately, though, Garrick had a Steel Axe hiding behind him, so he pulled that out and began blocking Chrom's attacks. As he struck Garrick from left to right, I managed to re-obtain Balmung during this time in the building. But that wasn't part of the plan; more of something I just had to do out of pure instinct.

* * *

In the building, though, I saw a stained-glass portrait of a beautiful woman inside a vibrant dragon along with several benches facing it with a straightforward path separating them into two sections.

"Naga?" I whispered.

As entrancing as this was, though, I remembered that I had to pull through with the strategy.

"Although I hold your enemy inside me, please look after me."

I made sure that my Thunder spell book wasn't completely ruined by the water, as _that_ was essential to the plan and ran outside of the building. There were some parts that had become smeared and thus, illegible, but the majority of the book's soggy pages remained intact, along with the spell that I needed.

Eventually, though, I heard a splash and saw Garrick struggling to get out of the water.

"AGH, WHAT IS THIS?!" He shouted. "I CAN'T SWIM!"

"All right, now what?" Chrom asked me as he sheathed Falchion. I sheathed Balmung and then placed my spell book in my right hand. I pointed to the water with my left, and then cast Thunder directly at it. This caused the entire water to be electrified, and thus, electrocuted Garrick to death. His corpse lay afloat and soon turned to where his back could be shown.

"Forgive me for the morbid idea," I said as I closed my spell book.

"Well, it worked," Chrom responded uncomfortably. "But will the water stay like this?"

"No, the weather cycle should take care of that." I then turned to him and held out my left hand in friendship. "My name's Anne, by the way!"

"Um, Chrom. But I think you already knew that."

Soon, not only did Henry and Tharja show up, but so did the knight and Lissa.

"Did we get all of them, Frederick?" Chrom asked the knight.

"All aside from these three, milord," he responded; looking directly at Tharja, Henry, and I. He then placed his lance near my neck again. "What should we do with them?"

Chrom hesitated, but then Lissa walked up to him.

"They saved me from a surprise attack, Chrom," she told him. "Plus, I told Anne that she should be thanked by Emm."

"Emm?" Henry asked.

"She means Emmeryn, you dolt," Tharja scoffed. "You know, their leader."

"Ohhhh…"

"All right, we'll go back to Ylisstol and discuss what we should do there," Chrom stated.

_Oh gods, we're basically prisoners now…_ I thought to myself.


End file.
